Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Thanks for joining me!
Actually, the journey continues…
It began a few years ago when I was on the cusp of a time of transition. Change was coming and now looking back, the signs were there. The organization I had been a part of was going to wind down operations and it came after a long period of decline. One of my refuges was to play guitar in weekly services in my church but that was also transitioning and it was not favoring what I had to offer.
I am an avid hiker and I live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. There is a loosely organized group called the 900 Miler Club made up of people who hike all the trails in the Park. You hike all the trails, date them in a spreadsheet, send it in with a $15 check, and you get a nice certificate and a “900 Miler” sticker for your SUV. As you complete a trail, you trace or “redline” it on a Park Service map. The 900 miler community refers to a hiker in the midst of becoming a 900 miler as “working on her map”. Several people have completed three or four maps and the record is seven. I was on my first map. As work was starting to wind down I had three-day weekends and since my talent and current disposition did not fit into the direction of ministry, I declared a hiatus and went hiking every weekend.
The weather along the Tennessee/North Carolina border is temperate compared to most mountain communities. We have big snows but it rarely shuts everything down for more than a few days, which offers nearly year-round good hiking. So the fall and winter of 2015 found me somewhere in the GSMNP every weekend. It turned out to be a great stress relief. I remember one time driving through the park, I was reliving elements of the stressful week in my mind, feeling my blood pressure rise. I parked at the trailhead, opened the door and the brisk December breeze hit me like a cold slap. Then I felt the stress simply vaporize with the fog of my breath in the 30 degree air. I found myself craving the physical challenge of an 18-20 mile day and I began honing my skills in lightweight and winter backpacking.
The research into this renewed interest did not stop with the lightest backpack, or the best navigation equipment. I ran across people who described the personal and spiritual aspects of being in the wilderness and I started buying books. I’m not exactly sure when this happened, There was no eureka moment. Like many life-changing influences, it was more of an evolved awareness. Inevitably, I began a close personal relationship with John Muir through his numerous and profound writings, and this has led to relationships with all kinds of people who find that encounters with our Creator are more profound when we put ourselves in the Creation.
There are 168 trails in the GSMNP. The Appalachian Trail (BTW, it’s pronounced apple-latchin, not apple-layshun) runs about 71 miles and bisects the park almost perfectly in two halves. AT thru hikers experience the park in a very linear way from Fontana to Davenport Gap. My redline map shows hundreds of intersecting trails, many branching off the AT and some never connecting to it at all. The 900 Miler doesn’t complete a map in any particular order. You may hike a trail from end to end or you may walk on it for a few miles and branch off in another direction.
This journey resembles my 900 Miler redline map. The AT is a prominent feature running east to west, but it is sometimes obscured by the other 167 trails in the park. This journey is about encountering the Creator in the Creation but it branches off in a lot of side trails and connectors. Some of these trails run north/south and may not forward progress directly but they are a part of the overall journey and open up experiences you would not encounter on the main trail.
This journey has a lot of side trails. Some are iconic and some are just plain hard and may not be well maintained. These side trails include:
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- Contemplative Prayer and Meditation
- Sabbath
- Understanding Creation in the Context of Modern Science
- Sacred Spaces
- Perfect Moments
- Hiking Gear (of course)
- Lightweight Hiking
- Soloing and Hiking with Friends
- Long Distance Adventures
- Photography
- TimeSpace
- Our Place in Creation
- Star Dust
- My Favorite Adventure: The Next One
The best part of this journey is that I do not know where it ends. I don’t know if or when all the trails will be checked off. I certainly hope not. I don’t know if I have all of them on my particular map. I hope not. There won’t be any stickers or certificates. At least… I hope not.
But it is my pleasure to share it with you.
Be well, do good, walk humbly.
Copyright 2019 Shawn A. Carson
wildsabbath.com 